


Who Needs Sleep?

by Kalandan



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Brother-Sister Relationships, Drift Bond, Friendship, Gen, Jaeger Academy, Jaeger Pilots, Post-Drift (Pacific Rim), Pre-Canon, Sleep Deprivation, The Drift (Pacific Rim)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-11 22:53:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9038480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kalandan/pseuds/Kalandan
Summary: The Academy is full of trials and tribulations. Tendo isn't immune to them, neither are the Becket brothers.The Tsunari brothers arrival at Kodiak heralds shenanigans and betting pools.Tendo posts a photo that none of the soon to be Rangers will ever live down. hehe.Pentecost shows some holiday cheer to the cadets, even if they'll never know it.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Jocelyn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jocelyn/gifts).



> Request was:  
> Emotional hurt/comfort/fluff, please! Give me some time pre-Knifehead, Raleigh and Yancy recovering from a stressful battle, looked after by Tendo, who always takes care of his Becket boys, and Marshal Pentecost, who may be a stern commander but puts the welfare of his Rangers as top priority. (Platonic/brotherly only, please.)
> 
> I went way pre Knifehead, I went back to the academy. Hope this fills the need. This is an ode to Jocelyn's world building skills, aspiring to their greatness.  
> I added some OCs to fill out their academy class. (please enjoy brief bios below)
> 
> Priyasha Pillai- Indian family, moved to France post kaiju. 25 years old Studies Medicine, scrubbed out of ranger readiness, and now works support. Cousin to Mitra Jaya Pillai, She makes an appearance in some of my other works.  
> Kiran Weiss -German of mixed decent, speaks German and other languages. 22 years old, found her copilot 2nd semester of the academy. Will go on to pilot a Mark 3 Jaeger.  
> Mitra Jaya Pillai- Cousin of Priyasha Pillai, 22 years old. Finds drift partner in academy, will go on to pilot a Mark 3 Jaeger.

**Kodiak Island**

**December 2016**

 

Final term of the academy, the ranger candidates have passed physical and psychological tests and exams.  They’ve even drifted, and just before Christmas they are running battle simulations in the Pons labs.  Vic and Gunnar are on hand at Kodiak for the first two weeks in December, which Tendo appreciates.  Always makes the betting pools more interesting with them around.  

 

Sitting in the mess hall one morning, the ranger candidates, besides Raleigh are all wordlessly eating breakfast, or drinking coffee like their lives depend on it. Tendo is the same.  When in strolls the Tunari brothers, big smiles on their faces.  Raleigh perks up at seeing someone looking remotely awake. He waves the Rangers over to their table.  

“Hey guys!” Raleigh chirps. He shoves Yancy over on the bench next to him to make room on the end.  

“Hey Becket!” Vic ruffles Raleigh’s hair, doesn’t diminish his smile in the least.

Both Yancy and Tendo glance up from their coffee mugs, only to continue to drink from them.  Raleigh cheerily asks “What’s up? You’re smiling like you just won a bet.” He eyes between Vic next to him and Gunnar across from him.  

“Oh Baby Becket, you have no idea!” There is a wordless exchange between the brothers, _drifting has a funny way of adding to the ‘non verbal’ vocabulary._

Raleigh starts to get suspicious. “Uh oh, do I want to know?”

“You’ll find out soon enough.” Another pat on the head and the brothers are off to grab their own trays of food.  

Yancy wakes up enough to mutter. “That can’t be good. Tendo, know anything?”

“Hmm, nah. I’m just as clueless as you are right now.” Tendo looks a little more alive, as he starts on his second mug of coffee.  

“Maybe it's a surprise party for the end of term?” Kennedy sounds hopeful, while Stephanie just rolls her eyes at her drift partner.

“Right, like they’d be that happy over something trivial. Nah, something is coming, and they are looking forward to our misery is my guess.” She waves her mug towards the rangers, and then a general loop of their table.  Kiran and Mitra were nodding in agreement with Stephanie.  Ilisapie and Zeke look back and forth from Raleigh to Stephanie.  

Ilisapie shakes her head, “Let's not invent trouble for ourselves. I’m sure Lightcap and the rest of them,” makes a flaily hand gesture, “have plenty of trouble for us to work through. Come on.” She hauls Zeke up with her, signaling the end of breakfast for the 8 Ranger Candidates, and they file out, leaving Tendo, and Priyasha sipping the dregs of their coffee.

She stops halfway to standing, “Do you think it's trouble for them? Or are you bets on something more fun?”

Tendo seems to ponder the question momentarily, puts his mug down. “Are you a betting woman?” He raises his eyebrow in a bit of a challenge.

“I’m in medical, only things bets lead to in my profession are head wounds and stitches.” She levels a stare at him.

Tendo shrugs, “I’d say be prepared for anything then.” and picks up his tray, follows Priyasha out of the mess hall.  

 

The academy is a buzz of rumors and guesses before lunch rolls around.  The Ranger candidates still no wiser as to what might be coming.  The morning spent in the kwoon and science classes about Kaiju anatomy and oceanography to better understand the terrain they’ll be fighting in.  

 

Tendo finally catches word of what it might be in the afternoon sims session.  Running the simulator control room, the cadets find out that the rest of the week will be “Time Trials” Simulations.  

Lightcap comes into the control room to brief the LOCCENT teams on their role. “You’ll all be running on shifts with the Rangers, as if you are on active duty.  There are four teams of rangers and LOCCENT staff will be assigned a team for the duration of this test. Red, Blue, Green and Yellow teams will all be reporting whenever your ranger pair is called up.  All other support staff will be on swing teams to infill the other active duty personnel.” she smiles sweetly to the gathered cadets. “Any questions?” She scans the room, answers a minor question or two.  

“Any other questions? No? Well you will get your team assignments at the end of today’s trial session.  Welcome to Hell week ladies and gentlemen.” With that bombshell she sweeps out of the room.  The cadets left gaping in her wake.  

 

Tendo checks the list on the way out of the session.  He’s on Team Green, and after a quick scan sees that is the Becket’s team. Silently he congratulates himself for getting onto the “boys” team.  Sure Yancy’s almost his age, but they both seem so young on occasion, especially when Raleigh grins like a damn fool.

 

Tendo sits with the usual crowd at dinner that night.  The place the exact opposite of the morning meal, everyone is alive and animated.  Tendo sits across from Yancy, Zeke on his left, the end of the bench left open.  Settling in he looks up and catches a nervous glance from Raleigh.

“Are you boys excited for Hell Week?”

There is an uproar at that. All the ranger candidates jumping on Tendo for the remark. “Calm down, I’m sure you’ll all do fine. It's just what Lightcap called it.”

“You mean the Time Trials is really going to be hell. Great, thanks!” Zeke is super sarcastic.

“Oh it can’t be any worse than a real Kaiju attack, right?” Mitra sounds optimistic about it. The comment gives everyone at the table momentary pause.

Tendo leans forward to see Mitra around Zeke and Ilisapie, “You know,” Tendo points to the other end of the table, “he’s got a point. And we’ve all lived through those one way or another.”

“If I had a beer I’d salute you!” The whole table looks up. Its Vic and Gunnar Tsunari, back again.

“Well if it isn’t thing 1 and thing 2, back to cause more trouble!” Raleigh pipes up, but the smile on his face gives away his mixed feelings.

“Oh we didn’t worry your pretty little heads did we?” Gunnar intones in a high pitched voice, mocking them all.

“I think they’ve found out our fun. At least if the look on Yancy’s face is one to go by. Don’t be so somber now, just wait till the end of the week!” Vic chimes in, mischievous smile firmly on his lips.

Yancy looks pensive, smart enough to worry about how excited the Rangers are for the candidates upcoming misery.  Yancy seems to swallow the sour mood and returns their smiles. “Well if you’re here, I’m sure you’ll get to see it all. So before we all lose our sanity, spill it. What happened that made Hell week so amusing during your academy class? Hmm?” Yancy’s grin a little wicked looking.

 

Tendo had to give it to Vic and Gunnar, they were quite the story tellers. Even if the story was outrageous. Tendo’s not sure if they made it up or just embellished on the truth. Either way, he doesn’t take anything they say at face value.   But when the first green team alarm goes off at 3 am the next day, he wonders if some of it wasn’t true.  

 

The Academy staff have the candidates running around on strange shifts. They run sims all hours of the day and night.  Sometimes, if they deal with the Kaiju quick, they’re rewarded with _another_ sim less than an hour later.  The sims keep running longer and longer.

Each team of Ranger candidates looking more tired and hollow each day.  Like a wrung out version of themselves.  Not even Raleigh, despite his youth, is immune to the pressures of lost sleep and extended drift drills.  

 

Although Tendo muses that baby Becket is probably holding up better than the rest of the candidates. Raleigh can at least sit up and looks half awake. Yancy, already not a morning person, looks zombie like all times of the day, a permanent death glare on his face over breakfast. Tendo sits between the Beckets and Zeke.  

Ilisapie and Zeke are hunched over their meal, eyes bloodshot and fresh circuitry burns peeking out from their sleeves;  their last sim was 4 hours long.  Mitra Jaya and Kiran are slumped against each other, Priyasha sitting next to her cousin, holding him up like a bookend.   Kennedy and Stephanie aren’t much better off, with similar zombie faces.  They were the last team to get out of the sims only 3 hours ago.

 

Most of the other academy cadets avoid the ranger candidates at this point. Either because of the death glares or the unprecedented level of drift induced synchronization they exhibit.  Priyasha and Tendo among the few exceptions.  Tendo raises his mug to Priyasha at the other end, the only ones to brave this strange bunch.  

“One more Day.” he sips his coffee, “who knew 24 hours could feel so long?” Tendo mutters to his coffee.

“Thankfully Kaiju don’t come this frequent in real life!” Raleigh mutters back, stabbing the last of his food with extra force. Chewing loudly.

“Let's’ hope not.” Tendo, having spent more time listening to the K- Science theories and hypothesis is wary of that statement.

“One day more.” Yancy says, tone flat, gaze dull.  

“One more day to revolution!” Raleigh sing songs.

Tendo raises his eyebrow and looks over at Raleigh, like it's the most preposterous thing he’s heard. His coffee mug left half way between table and mouth.

“We will nip them in the bud.” Raleigh continues his sing song, the lyrics not ringing any bells to Tendo. Raleigh pauses, and Yancy exhales, like he’s heard it all before. “What? Don’t you remember Les Miserables?”

Yancy turns away from his brother and continues to drink coffee. Ignoring the only lively one at the table.

Tendo tries to remember what Les Miserables is.  No one else seems to take any note of the exchange. Stray thought crosses Tendo’s mind, its been almost 12 hours since the Becket’s team was called to a ‘kaiju alert’.  He finishes his coffee.

Then the announcement goes off for Green team to report to the Sims lab, Kaiju alert drills for the rest of the Green team until further notice. Tendo curses himself mentally, _I just had to go and think that, Ugh_.

The battle the techs had cooked up for the Beckets is a doozie.  Tendo, working on this side of the console was burnt by the end, and all he had to do was relay data and messages to the pilots.  He wasn’t drifting and fighting with the slimy Kaiju that looked like a cross between a gecko and a armadillo. Plates and slime everywhere, didn’t seem like much at first but hours in Tendo is reconsidering his thought.  

In total it took the Beckets, who still had the best simulator scores of the remaining candidates, 6 hours to bring down the thing.  That was _with_ simulated ground forces military help.  It definitely wasn’t the cleanest kill, but it was the longest fought one for the whole semester.  

 

When the Beckets were finally de-suited, and medical had seen to their bruises and circuitry burns it was dinner time. Tendo followed them to the mess hall.  No one spoke, too tired to bother.  Tendo observed Yancy and Raleigh make a couple of head gestures that seemed to be a whole conversation without a word. _Yup doing that weird drift thingy again_.

Some of the other teams had recovered somewhat in green team's’ absence.  Ilisapie and Zeke looked alive, Mitra and Kiran actually talking in quiet german, and Kennedy and Stephanie a pair of beaming smiles to see the Beckets.

“Wow! Guys, that was amazing! 6 hours of battling Kaiju?! That has to be a record or something.” Kennedy excitedly chirps.  

“Actually it's just shy of the Academy sims record, but it's definitely a record for the Hell Week time trials sims!” Vic says as he shows up from nowhere, Gunnar showing up on the other side of the Beckets.  

“Thanks” said in perfect unison from both Beckets. They don’t even notice everyone pause at the formerly strange phenomenon. “We’re ready for a record breaking nap.” Still in unison.

Tendo claps Yancy on the back, looks over to Raleigh, “Well it's only,” a look at his watch, “another 7 hours left in the time trials! Ugh.”

“Yeck.” both Beckets wipe their hand over their faces, eerie how still in sync they are.  

“Well look to the bright side, since you just ran a long sim you’re more than likely off the hook for the rest of the day.” Mitra points out. A half smile gracing his lips, Kiran only shows a half smile to that comment.

“Yeah, that’s a good point.” Stephanie jumps in, “if they run another long sim the rest of us might be off the hook for the end of this!”

“Still means someone is going through a long sim, if that’s the case. Or we all get another round of quick sims.” Ilisapie grouches.

“Yeah, I’d rather be done with it.” Zeke chimes in.

Conversation dies down as the group gets down to eating their meal. Vic and Gunnar suggest spending their free time in the Rec room.  The whole group follows their lead.

A game of ping pong and cards later Yancy flops down in the corner of the sectional couch in front of the TV.  He puts some random station on and slouches back, getting comfortable.  Raleigh, despite his bouts of bravado that he isn’t exhausted, ends up on the couch next to his brother.  Kennedy and Stephanie quickly join them, sitting together on Yancy’s other side.  He smiles, the pair fitting in like a close knit family.

They all seem to go boneless moments after settling in. Mitra and Zeke catch view of the puppy pile from their side of the card table.  They nod to their partners, who turn to see. The card game is quickly forgotten in favor of joining the growing Ranger Candidate pile on the couch.  One pair slot in next to Raleigh, the other pair draping themselves next to the girls.  

Tendo snaps a shot on his phone moments later, every single one of them out like a light.  The humm of their sleeping breathes soft and sweet.  The TV only a murmur in the background, and without thinking about it Tendo posts the picture to the internal Academy chatboard.  

[Photo Here](http://archerybushidokid.tumblr.com/image/130556096982)

Pentecost looks away from the report he is reading to look at the notification that popped up at the bottom of his screen.  He clicks on it, the Chat board from the Academy.

It shows a picture of a lump of cadets, all piled together asleep. The caption reads “Cadets Ready for ...”.  

His lip quirks only the littlest bit, he grabs his phone and calls up Lightcap.

“Marshall, what a pleasant surprise. What can I do for you?”

“Did you see the picture Doctor?” Cutting through the pleasantry crap.

“The one Mr. Choi posted of the Ranger Candidates? Yes I did. Quite adorable.”

“Do you have any more tests scheduled for today?”

“I was considering one last quick round of sims…”

Pentecost cuts her off “Leave them be for the rest of today Doctor. It seems they need the rest after all.” He lets a little bit of mirth sneak into his voice then.

“Yes sir! Does this give me permission to tease them for it next week after the holiday?” Lightcaps jovial voice taking on some mischief.

“Lets leave them be, call it a holiday present. That’ll be all Doctor”

“Thank you Marshall.”


End file.
